The present invention relates to the art of passenger restraint systems, and, in particular, to those system designed to maintain body position during destabilizing conditions.
It is known in the art of passenger-support systems that occupants in vehicles undergoing high performance maneuvers and/or otherwise subjected to severe velocity changes, whether it be rate of travel or change of direction or both, experience highly destabilizing forces on the body which induce movement of the body out of or about the seat. Injury, loss of orientation, loss of control of the vehicle, etc. are but a few of the effects suffered from the unsettling forces of severe velocity changes.
Passenger restraint systems known in the art usually include passenger restraint seat-belts which are pulled from one or more seat belt holders generally across the body and secured by a clip or buckle to either a cooperating seat-belt or a receiving assembly. The belts are either held at the length established by the initial pull from the holders, or are urged against the passenger to reduce slack by retractors biased in the retracting direction.
In the case of an "established-length" system,the passenger normally initially overpulls the seat belt(s) to provide room to move about relatively freely in the seat. Three are no means by which the passenger can be forcibly retracted back to the seat in case of collision or other unsettling forces.
In the case of these seat belts, which are continually urged toward retraction, the belts yield to passenger movement, except during an abrupt stop, in which case inertia sensors activate a mechanism which restrains the belt from travel. Once again, however, passenger retraction back to the seat is not provided. Consequently, restraint systems presently in use have been found somewhat inadequate under highly destabilizing conditions.
Inadequate body restraint is one of the reasons that many aircrewmen ejecting from modern day aircraft sustain injuries. Inadequate body restraint can be caused by loose lap belts and/or shoulder harness resulting from, for example, improper harness fit, loosening by occupant for comfort, immobility of the occupant, belt binding, belt slippage, interference of flight gear, and neglect of occupant.
Aircrewmen perform very complex tasks under demanding environmental conditions and must be provided with a functional, reliable, safe, and easily maintainable restraint system that maintains body stability under all operational modes, e.g., egress of ejection seats, seat-passenger separation, and in-flight inertial (G) excursions. For example, one of the problems encountred in high performance aircraft is crewman displacement associated with flight trajectory departures, such as spins, which induce high transverse force of inertia. Another unsettling force is the "eyeballs-out" G force caused by, among other things, rapid deceleration. Either of these unsettling forces can result in the inability of the crewman to obtain proper body positioning to make corrective action.
As a result of inadequate restraint, the vehicle occupant can incur severe spinal and abdominal injury, and, in the case of high performance aircraft, the occupant can suffer detrimental effects from limb flail, seat-occupant separation both in the aircraft and during ejection, as well as hazardous survival kit interface during ejection.
In the case of aircraft restraint systems, inertia reels presently available having a manual lock which allows no forward movement; an auto lock which allows upper torso mobility in and out with a certain rate of payout and a crash inertia locking feature as discussed hereinabove; and a powered retraction capability which provides ballistic powered haul-back on ejection only.
However, these operations are deficient during certain aircraft maneuvers, particularly flat spins. In a flat spin, the crewmen tend to move forward in the unrestrained harness as a consequence of the resulting "eyeballs-out" G force. The level of G force in this situation is sufficient to move the crew member forward, but not great enough to cause harness reel lock up. Should it become necessary to eject in this spin environment, eyeballs-out G forces might exceed the haul-back capability of the inertia reel resulting in crewmen who are not properly positioned or restrained for ejection and are susceptible to serious injury.
Similar problems are encountered in other high performance craft such as automobiles, boats, etc., as well as in collision conditions in almost any vehicle. An example of efforts to overcome these defects in automobile restraint systems in the instantly-inflatable balloon positioned in front of automobile passengers.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a passenger restraint system which restrains a vehicle passenger, especially in high performance aircraft, under unsettling force conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a total upper and lower passenger restraint system in combination with a survival kit system in order to minimize space requirements as well as reliance on viability of aircraft systems.